Thessaly

Thessaly is a region of central Greece, with Larissa serving as its capital. In 480 BC, the Persian Empire conquered Thessaly, and Macedon began to exert its influence in the region in the 4th century BC after Philip II of Macedon became Archon of Thessaly. After Rome conquered Greece in the 2nd century BC, Thessaly would become a long-lived Roman province; it was ruled by the Romans/Byzantines until 1204, when it was conquered  by the Kingdom of Thessalonica, a Latin state. In 1318, the Almogavars conquered the independent despotate and created the Duchy of Neopatria, which was conquered by the Serbs in 1348. Thessaly remained a part of Serbia until the Ottoman Empire conquered it in 1393. Thessaly remained under Ottoman rule even after the Greek War of Independence during the 1820s, and it was not until 1881, after the Congress of Berlin, that Greece annexed Thessaly from the Ottomans. The remaining Ottoman portions of Thrace were conquered by Greece in 1912 during the First Balkan War. In 2011, Thessaly had a population of 732,762 people.